Van Halen

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Van Halen (disambiguation) .

Van Halen
Van Halen, 2008
General information
Genre (s)	Hard rock
founding	1972
Website	www.van-halen.com
Founding members
Vocals , guitar	Eddie Van Halen
bass	Mark Stone (until 1974)
Drums	Alex Van Halen
Current occupation
singing	David Lee Roth (1974–1985, 1996–1997, since 2007)
Lead guitar , keyboard	Eddie Van Halen
bass	Wolfgang Van Halen (since 2006)
Drums , percussion	Alex Van Halen
former members
Vocals, rhythm guitar	Sammy Hagar (1985-1996, 2004-2005)
singing	Gary Cherone (1996-1999)
bass	Michael Anthony (1974-2006)

Original drums used by Alex Van Halen when recording the first album

Van Halen is a hard rock - band from the United States after her guitarist Eddie Van Halen and his drum -playing brother Alex Van Halen was named.

history

prehistory

The Van Halen family emigrated from Nijmegen in the Netherlands to Pasadena , California in 1962 . Jan van Halen, the father of Edward and Alex, was a professional musician himself and also played the clarinet on the single Big Bad Bill Is Sweet William Now from the album Diver Down (1982) . As small children, Alex (the older of the two brothers) and Edward took classical piano lessons. Alex also learned to play the guitar, while Edward became interested in the drums. Edward soon had to admit that his brother was better suited for this, so he switched to the guitar.

1972: band founded

In 1972 the Van Halen brothers formed a trio called "Mammoth" with Eddie as singer and Mark Stone on bass. They borrowed the sound system from David Lee Roth but then decided to save the money and gave Roth the role of lead singer. In 1974, Stone was replaced by Michael Anthony . After further attempts with band names like The Broken Combs and Rat Salad (based on the song of the same name by Black Sabbath ), the band finally decided (at a suggestion by David Lee Roth) for Van Halen , which, in the opinion of Eddie van Halen, “how listening to a German atomic bomb ". The band became known in the Los Angeles club scene . In 1976 Gene Simmons , the head of the band KISS , saw a performance by Van Halen and financed the production of a demo tape. The band also played in the opening act for Nils Lofgren , Santana and UFO . The band later got a recording deal through Mo Ostin, an executive at Warner Bros. , and Ted Templeman , the producer of their first albums, to whom the band had been recommended by Simmons.

1978 to 1984: record debut and 1984

Her most successful albums were the debut album Van Halen , released in 1978 (with the cover version of You Really Got Me by the band The Kinks, which was successful as a single release ) and the record released in 1984 in 1984 . Over time, both albums received diamond awards (= 10 × platinum) for each more than 10 million copies sold. In addition, both albums are considered milestones in rock 'n' roll because they incorporate musical innovations (the songs Runnin 'with the Devil and Jump , released in 1984 on the 1984 album , are among the 500 most influential songs in the Rock and Roll Hall of) Fame ). The band's second production, Van Halen II , reached number 6 on the charts , as did the following Women and Children First , and their fourth album, Fair Warning , reached number 5. All subsequent albums made the top 5.

The band's glam metal sound can be described as extremely raw and “live” in the years of the original line-up. In fact, all of the songs recorded during this period were recorded live, i.e. in the studio at the same time. Subsequent recordings only related to vocals or (in absolutely exceptional cases) a second guitar track. According to the bassist Michael Anthony, the recordings that were made in this way, which only lacked the “applause track”, were one reason why the band did not release their first live CD until 1992.

1985–2006: With Sammy Hagar and Gary Cherone

Wolfgang van Halen 2012

1985 marked a turning point in the band's history: David Lee Roth left the band in a dispute and began a solo career, he was replaced by Sammy Hagar , who had previously sung with Montrose and then solo. The first joint album was titled 5150 ; This is also the name of the studio in which some of Van Halen's albums were recorded. Jump succeeded with the hit single Why Can't This Be Love , which was followed by a successful tour of the USA. In 1987 Eddie Van Halen produced a solo project for the singer Sammy Hagar. In 1988 the band released the album OU 812 (read: Oh, you ate one, too ); this is a reference to David Lee Roth, who named his solo album Eat 'Em and Smile .

With both albums Van Halen reached number 1 in the US charts for the first time in his career. The 1991 album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge ( FUCK ) was also successful and the following US tour became one of the most successful concert tours of a band through American halls. The result of this tour is documented by the live album Van Halen Live: Right Here, Right Now and an equally titled live video, after Live Without a Net already the second of the Sammy Hagar era. Hagar later revealed in his autobiography that Alex and Eddie Van Halen had insisted on re-recording all of the live material from scratch before it was released. Van Halen never contradicted this representation. In 1995 the band released their last studio album with Hagar with Balance . This left the group after disputes within the band as well as a final joint work with the soundtrack for the film Twister .

In 1996 Van Halen's first best-of album was released. In addition to some of the most important classics, it contained two new pieces that were surprisingly sung by former singer David Lee Roth. The expected reunion of the old band did not materialize. An even bigger surprise was the presentation of the new singer. Gary Cherone , former frontman of the American hard funk rock band around guitarist Nuno Bettencourt Extreme , replaced Hagar. However, the creative collaboration did not last long. Gary Cherone left the band in November 1999 after the album Van Halen 3 and a world tour. This decision was supported by the bad reviews from fans of Van Halen and the moderate commercial success of the album.

There was a break for the band. Guitarist Edward Van Halen had to cope with some personal crises during this time. The fight against cancer and alcohol addiction as well as the implantation of an artificial hip joint was followed by the divorce from his wife and mother of his son, Valerie Bertinelli . After much speculation about the future of the band, the announcement of a summer tour through the USA followed in the spring of 2004. Hagar was once again committed as a singer. The band released the second best-of album, The Best of Both Worlds, with three new tracks sung by Hagar.

After the tour ended on November 19, 2004, Van Halen's future was open again. Edward Van Halen worked with the porn director Michael Ninn ; a jointly produced soundtrack includes three new songs and an associated explicit music video for Ninn's latest porn films. Singer Sammy Hagar was initially on tour with Michael Anthony under the band name The Other Half; then they founded a supergroup called Chickenfoot together with Joe Satriani and Chad Smith , the drummer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers . In November 2006, Van Halen announced the entry of Eddie's 15-year-old son Wolfgang Van Halen as an exchange for long-time bassist and background singer Michael Anthony.

2007: Roth returns

In February 2007 a tour with David Lee Roth was confirmed as singer and a tour through 40 cities in North America for the summer of 2007 was announced. Eddie Van Halen announced that he is "very pleased to be returning to Van Halen's roots". The tour has been postponed, with Eddie Van Halen's alcohol problems allegedly playing a role.

On March 12, 2007, the group was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. Only ex-singer Sammy Hagar and ex-bassist and background singer Michael Anthony from the old line-up were present at the award ceremony in New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Edward Van Halen did not take part due to the alcohol withdrawal regimen he started on March 8, 2007. Singer David Lee Roth and drummer Alex Van Halen stayed away from the ceremony. Singer Gary Cherone was not included in the honor as the only former member of the band, but was mentioned in Michael Anthony's acceptance speech.

On May 24, 2007, Eddie Van Halen ended the alcohol withdrawal regimen. In August 2007, Van Halen announced their comeback tour, which was to last from September 27th to April 7th, 2008 at a press conference. However, some concerts on this tour had to be postponed due to Eddie Van Halen's health, so the tour was extended until April 24, 2008. Among other things, Van Halen played on March 17, 2008 in the sold out Madison Square Garden in New York City. The singer of this tour was David Lee Roth, Alex van Halen on drums, Eddie van Halen guitarist and Eddie's son Wolfgang van Halen played bass.

Since 2011

On January 20, 2011 it was announced that the group would be in the studio to work on a new album. There was no comment from the band, but producer John Shanks , who is supposed to oversee the recordings, spread the news via his Twitter account. The CD was supposed to be the band's first album together with David Lee Roth since he left the band in 1985 and Van Halen changed musically with singer Sammy Hagar. For September 2011 the group was already booked to headline the Australian rock festival Soundwave Revolution , which was to take place between September 24th and October 3rd, 2011 in Brisbane , Sydney , Melbourne , Adelaide and Perth . However, the festival was canceled in August 2011.

On February 3, 2012, the new album A Different Kind of Truth was released. In addition to the band's new songs, it also contains songs that were already available as demos at the beginning of the band's career, such as She's the Woman , which was part of the band that Gene Simmons had produced in 1976. A first single called Tattoo , which is based on the song Down in Flames , which was not released in 1977 , could be heard and purchased in advance on various sites on the Internet.

The first live album with David Lee Roth Tokyo Dome in Concert was released on March 27, 2015 .

The guitarist Eddie Van Halen

→ Main article : Style section in Eddie Van Halen article

Eddie Van Halen's guitar playing is characterized by a recognizable rhythmic work, which is interspersed with solo interludes and which are noticeably integrated. However, Van Halen became popular mainly through his solo performance. Contributing to this was his work on the Michael Jackson song Beat It (1983), the guitar solo of which introduced the USA, which was previously divided into "black" and "white" music, with a suitable mixture of both and encouraged imitation - Michael Jackson / Steve Stevens ( Dirty Diana ), Michael Jackson / Slash ( Black or White ), Janet Jackson / Nuno Bettencourt ( Black Cat ).

Eddie Van Halen's influence on the playing technique and the sound of the electric guitar had a decisive influence on the 1980s and 1990s (playing techniques such as: "Artificial Harmonics", "Dive Bombs" or "Tapping"). The Van Halen solo Eruption (from the debut album) made tapping particularly popular as a solo technique . Tapping involves manipulating the strings directly on the fingerboard with both hands to simultaneously determine the pitch and make the strings vibrate instead of pressing the strings against the frets with one hand and striking the strings with the other.

Edward Van Halen owned a US patent for a guitar extension that supports and facilitates tapping on the instrument. Legend has it that before the first album was released, Edward Van Halen played his solos with his back to the audience, initially to hide his technique from imitators.

Another innovation that Van Halen brought about was the so-called "Brown Sound". A colloquial expression for the combination of Edward's very relaxed style, his willingness to experiment in terms of sound optimization and the use of effect devices , which produced a distinctive, darkly distorted sound that many musicians imitated. In Eddie Van Halen's playing, nuances are achieved less through the use of the tone potentiometer: the sound remains fixed and its timbre is changed by the volume control and the touch of the guitar string. Also typical are the use of a 90s phaser effect , a very specific compressor to give the sound a thick sustain , a noise gate and now and then wah-wah pedal use around the center frequencies.

In summary, Eddie Van Halen's guitar playing (and the fascination that goes with it) can be described as a “casual performance with an aggressive sound”; according to his own statement: "... fall down the stairs and land on your feet ..."

Discography

→ Main article : Van Halen / discography  and list of Van Halen's songs

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1978	Van Halen	DE- gold DE	-	-	UK34 gold (11 weeks)UK	US19th diamond (171 weeks)US	First published: February 10, 1978 Sales: + 17,000,000 No. 415 of the Rolling Stone 500
1979	Van Halen II	DE24 (6 weeks) DE	-	-	UK23 (7 weeks) UK	US6th × 5 Quintuple platinum (47 weeks)US	First published: March 23, 1979 Sales: + 8,000,000
1980	Women and Children First	DE19 (18 weeks) DE	-	-	UK15 (7 weeks) UK	US6th × 3 Triple platinum (31 weeks)US	First published: March 26, 1980 Sales: + 6,000,000
1981	Fair warning	DE37 (10 weeks) DE	-	-	UK49 (4 weeks) UK	US5 × 2 Double platinum (23 weeks)US	First published: April 29, 1981 Sales: +3,000,000
1982	Diver Down	DE65 (1 week) DE	-	-	UK36 (5 weeks) UK	US3 × 4 Quadruple platinum (65 weeks)US	First published: April 14, 1982 Sales: + 5,000,000
1984	1984	DE11 platinum (30 weeks)DE	AT12 (6 weeks) AT	CH7 (20 weeks) CH	UK15th gold (25 weeks)UK	US2 diamond (80 weeks)US	First published: Jan 9, 1984 Sales: + 17,000,000
1986	5150	DE11 gold (27 weeks)DE	AT13 (4 weeks) AT	CH16 (8 weeks) CH	UK16 silver (18 weeks)UK	US1 × 6 Six-fold platinum (65 weeks)US	First published: March 24, 1986 Sales: + 11,000,000
1988	OU812	DE12 (15 weeks) DE	AT21 (4 weeks) AT	CH9 (8 weeks) CH	UK16 silver (12 weeks)UK	US1 × 4 Quadruple platinum (48 weeks)US	First published: May 24, 1988 Sales: + 5,000,000
1991	For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge	DE6 (19 weeks) DE	AT21 (11 weeks) AT	CH11 (13 weeks) CH	UK12 silver (5 weeks)UK	US1 × 3 Triple platinum (74 weeks)US	First published: June 17, 1991 Sales: + 4,500,000; Grammy (hard rock)
1995	balance	DE8 (17 weeks) DE	AT18 (8 weeks) AT	CH6 (19 weeks) CH	UK8 (4 weeks) UK	US1 × 3 Triple platinum (41 weeks)US	First published: Jan 24th, 1995 Sales: + 6,500,000
1998	Van Halen III	DE13 (5 weeks) DE	AT23 (3 weeks) AT	CH38 (3 weeks) CH	UK43 (2 weeks) UK	US4th gold (12 weeks)US	First published: March 17, 1998 Sales: + 1,000,000
2012	A Different Kind of Truth	DE8 (6 weeks) DE	AT17 (4 weeks) AT	CH6 (6 weeks) CH	UK6 (4 weeks) UK	US2 (17 weeks) US	First published: February 3, 2012 Sales: + 1,000,000

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

literature

• Irwin Stambler: The Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock And Soul . 3rd revised edition. St. Martin's Press, New York City 1989, ISBN 0-312-02573-4 , pp. 710-712.

Web links

Commons : Van Halen  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website
• Van Halen at laut.de
• Biography on musicline.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jan Van Halen's story. June 15, 2014, Retrieved October 21, 2019 (American English). 
2. ↑ Interview with Edward van Halen 1978
3. ↑ Biography about Van Halen on musicline.de ( Memento of the original from February 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ^ Wieland Harms: The Unplugged Guitar Book. 20 of the most beautiful songs for acoustic guitar. Gerig Music, ISBN 3-87252-249-3 , p. 108.
5. ^ Wieland Harms: The Unplugged Guitar Book. 20 of the most beautiful songs for acoustic guitar. P. 108.
6. ↑ 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll . rockhall.com; accessed on December 2, 2015
7. ↑ Guitar FTPM, July 1991, p 92
8. ↑ "Here we go kids ... VH" ; dispatched on January 20, 2010
9. ^ Van Halen's Facebook Posts Australian Concert Dates ; Van Halen News Desk, June 29, 2011
10. ↑ ^{a b} Preview Van Halen's new song “Blood and Fire”! .
11. ↑ Van Halen: "Tokyo Dome In Concert": First Van Halen live album with David Lee Roth appears . In: Warner Music Germany . March 3, 2015 ( warnermusic.de [accessed on May 13, 2017]).
12. ↑ patent. Retrieved September 7, 2013
13. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
14. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} Worldwide album sales On statisticbrain.com, March 17, 2015, English. Retrieved November 1, 2015.